All's Well That Ends Well

[Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING, attended]
[p]with divers young Lords taking leave for the
[p]Florentine war; BERTRAM, and PAROLLES]

King of France. Farewell, young lords; these warlike principles
Do not throw from you: and you, my lords, farewell:
Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain, all
595The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,
And is enough for both.

First Lord. 'Tis our hope, sir,
After well enter'd soldiers, to return
And find your grace in health.
600

King of France. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart
Will not confess he owes the malady
That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords;
Whether I live or die, be you the sons
Of worthy Frenchmen: let higher Italy,—
605Those bated that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy,—see that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when
The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek,
That fame may cry you loud: I say, farewell.
610

Parolles. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good
sparks and lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall
find in the regiment of the Spinii one Captain
Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of war, here
on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword
640entrenched it: say to him, I live; and observe his
reports for me.

Parolles. [To BERTRAM] Use a more spacious ceremony to the
noble lords; you have restrained yourself within the
list of too cold an adieu: be more expressive to
650them: for they wear themselves in the cap of the
time, there do muster true gait, eat, speak, and
move under the influence of the most received star;
and though the devil lead the measure, such are to
be followed: after them, and take a more dilated farewell.
655

Lafeu. O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox?
670Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if
My royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicine
That's able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,
675Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,
To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand,
And write to her a love-line.

Lafeu. Why, Doctor She: my lord, there's one arrived,
680If you will see her: now, by my faith and honour,
If seriously I may convey my thoughts
In this my light deliverance, I have spoke
With one that, in her sex, her years, profession,
Wisdom and constancy, hath amazed me more
685Than I dare blame my weakness: will you see her
For that is her demand, and know her business?
That done, laugh well at me.

King of France. Now, good Lafeu,
Bring in the admiration; that we with thee
690May spend our wonder too, or take off thine
By wondering how thou took'st it.

Lafeu. Nay, come your ways:
700This is his majesty; say your mind to him:
A traitor you do look like; but such traitors
His majesty seldom fears: I am Cressid's uncle,
That dare leave two together; fare you well.

Helena. The rather will I spare my praises towards him:
Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death
Many receipts he gave me: chiefly one.
Which, as the dearest issue of his practise,
And of his old experience the oily darling,
715He bade me store up, as a triple eye,
Safer than mine own two, more dear; I have so;
And hearing your high majesty is touch'd
With that malignant cause wherein the honour
Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power,
720I come to tender it and my appliance
With all bound humbleness.

King of France. We thank you, maiden;
But may not be so credulous of cure,
When our most learned doctors leave us and
725The congregated college have concluded
That labouring art can never ransom nature
From her inaidible estate; I say we must not
So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
To prostitute our past-cure malady
730To empirics, or to dissever so
Our great self and our credit, to esteem
A senseless help when help past sense we deem.

Helena. My duty then shall pay me for my pains:
I will no more enforce mine office on you.
735Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts
A modest one, to bear me back a again.

King of France. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful:
Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give
As one near death to those that wish him live:
740But what at full I know, thou know'st no part,
I knowing all my peril, thou no art.

Helena. What I can do can do no hurt to try,
Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy.
He that of greatest works is finisher
745Oft does them by the weakest minister:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes; great floods have flown
From simple sources, and great seas have dried
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
750Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

King of France. I must not hear thee; fare thee well, kind maid;
Thy pains not used must by thyself be paid:
755Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward.

Helena. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd:
It is not so with Him that all things knows
As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;
But most it is presumption in us when
760The help of heaven we count the act of men.
Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent;
Of heaven, not me, make an experiment.
I am not an impostor that proclaim
Myself against the level of mine aim;
765But know I think and think I know most sure
My art is not past power nor you past cure.

King of France. Are thou so confident? within what space
Hopest thou my cure?

Helena. The great'st grace lending grace
770Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring,
Ere twice in murk and occidental damp
Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp,
Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
775Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass,
What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly,
Health shall live free and sickness freely die.

King of France. Upon thy certainty and confidence
What darest thou venture?
780

King of France. Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak
His powerful sound within an organ weak:
And what impossibility would slay
In common sense, sense saves another way.
Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate
790Worth name of life in thee hath estimate,
Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all
That happiness and prime can happy call:
Thou this to hazard needs must intimate
Skill infinite or monstrous desperate.
795Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try,
That ministers thine own death if I die.

Helena. If I break time, or flinch in property
Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die,
And well deserved: not helping, death's my fee;
800But, if I help, what do you promise me?

Helena. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand
805What husband in thy power I will command:
Exempted be from me the arrogance
To choose from forth the royal blood of France,
My low and humble name to propagate
With any branch or image of thy state;
810But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know
Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow.

King of France. Here is my hand; the premises observed,
Thy will by my performance shall be served:
So make the choice of thy own time, for I,
815Thy resolved patient, on thee still rely.
More should I question thee, and more I must,
Though more to know could not be more to trust,
From whence thou camest, how tended on: but rest
Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest.
820Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceed
As high as word, my deed shall match thy meed.